Wednesday, July 29, 2009

You have come to the end of the internet? What a helpless feeling! Casey at Ever-Changing Life of a Military Wife and I talked about this yesterday and what it boils down to is that sometimes I am just plain old BORED! I have a routine that is pretty similar everyday. When I wake up in the morning the first thing I do is check my e-mail on my iphone. I was way too cheap (a.k.a. poor) when I lived in the States to pay for the service on this phone but I have to say that I am in love with it now. What is better than being able to roll over in bed in the morning and immediately check your e-mail?? Nothing in my opinion! After my e-mail I normally head over to my blog to see if I have gotten any new comments while I was sleeping (see people? I really do appreciate comments!) Then typically I read through all new status updates on Facebook. Pretty fun routine right? Ha. It gets old fast! While I try to reserve most of my e-mail responding for the bigger laptop I REALLY enjoy the iphone.

Once I am out of bed and going in the mornings the computer is still a pretty large part of my day. Right this second, here is a list of the internet sites that are saved in my temporary internet files.

www.gleatieanddeaner.blogspot.com (I rarely go to blogger.com)www.ebay.comwww.facebook.comwww.hotmail.comwww.googlemail.com (you can't just enter gmail.com here!)www.survivorsucks.comwww.jokersupdate.com (I think that both those last sites are sites that Deaner looks at to read about Big Brother, the show that he is frighteningly obsessed with!)www.bankofamerica.com (joint accounts)www.wachovia.com (my person run away from home money)www.google.comwww.shutterfly.comwww.weather.comwww.evite.comwww.delta.comwww.ryanair.com

Bottom line? By the early afternoon I have nothing left! Where do y'all go when you reach the end of the internet!?! I need some new fresh ideas of sites that I can hit up when I get bored like this! Please feel free to suggest your favorite sites that I can spend some time perusing! I'm sure that everyone can benefit from this. I know my husband will be eternally grateful if y'all can help me spend MORE time on the laptop! HA HA!

Not much else is going on. I am just readjusting to being back in Germany. Yesterday I took a two hour nap in the afternoon I was so exhausted. I was really irritated when Deaner still required me to go to the gym. What a slave driver! For those of you that are Facebook friends as well, I already shared my opinion, but I am starting to feel like Deaner should pay me to go to the gym with him! He does not necessarily feel the same way! Well, really what he said was "What is the point, you already get all my money anyways"! True I suppose. At one point he said if I did 10 more bicep curls I could buy a new piece of sterling. Dumb move since I easily hammered out ten more. What wouldn't I do for more sterling?? Then he changed his mind and said that he was only giving me the opportunity to EARN sterling if I did everything he said for a whole WEEK in the gym. NOT worth it!

This afternoon we will head back to the gym (barf) and hopefully get to eat dinner out afterwards. We have been so lazy lately when it comes to eating out that we have been sticking to the hotel restaurant or stopping by the PX for Subway on the way home from the gym. Needless to say, I am sick of all those options. Especially since I think that Subway sandwiches have the slimiest turkey ever. Deaner has to go to London on Monday and stay until Wednesday and tickets are so expensive that I think that I am getting left here in Wiesbaden. :( I don't know what I am going to do all ALONE for three days! We are hoping we get the key to our new house this weekend so perhaps I can get some work done in it. Guess we will see! I'll keep y'all updated!

The moment that everyone has been waiting for!! Ha, maybe not everyone!! I'll start with a few pictures from the bridesmaid's luncheon. It was hosted by my mother's friends and my sister and my Aunt's. This first picture is a shot of all the hostesses from the Bridesmaid's Luncheon. The luncheon was beautiful (despite the darn chicken salad!) and I know that everyone had a really good time. Especially with the cake charm pulls!! Here are a few more pictures from the luncheon including one of the cute monogrammed pillows that my sister gave each bridesmaid.By the way, my sister is the one in the pink and orange dress and my mom is the one in the pink dress. The following are some shots of my sister getting her hair done and then getting dressed. We took pictures at this pond around the street from the Church and it was perfect!Here are a few pictures of the bridesmaids dresses. And of course I have to throw the one of Deaner and me in there! The one of my whole family isn't all that great but I am thinking that the professional photographer probably got a better on.I feel certain that I will have more to share once we get the professional pictures back from the photographer! These should give y'all an idea about how things looked! I am still sad that it is over and that Deaner and I are back in Germany. Last night was a rough night because I was so homesick. I'm sure it will only last a few more days but I just can't help it. Anyways, I'm sure everyone will be interested to know that it is 9:40am here and I have already done 6 loads of laundry and folded it all. I'm off to put it away. I STILL hate doing laundry! I'm not sure how there was so much when I did all of it before we left the states! Geez! Today should be uneventful. I picked up some scrapbooking stuff in Atlanta and I might work on that a little bit after lunch with Deaner. Hope everyone is having a good week! It is already Wednesday!!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Why is it that it feels like you wait forever to do something but when that time actually comes, the event passes with such speed that is leaves you wondering how it has occurred already? I’m back on an airplane, high above Nova Scotia, about to cross the Atlantic Ocean (again), heading towards a place that I now call home but doesn’t exactly feel that way yet. Will it ever get any easier to leave behind family and friends and travel the 4,600 miles between Atlanta, GA, my “real” home, and my new home in Germany? Somehow I don’t feel like it will. While our departure this afternoon did not start by me waking up in tears this morning, they certainly came when I first said goodbye to my brother and then again when my parents dropped us at the curb at the airport. And again in the check in line, the security line, the Crown Room, the gate, and several times since we have been on the plane. I feel like I will probably be ok once we land in Germany and make our way back to the hotel but the sadness I am feeling right now really sucks.

The wedding weekend festivities were great. We couldn’t have asked for better weather (90 degrees in July IS considered mild!) or a better party! I survived my toast on Friday evening and even got to enjoy the perfect sunset overlooking the Atlanta skyline. The food was good, the drinks were cold, and the company was awesome. When you know a grand total of perhaps 15 people in a new place, knowing all 175 guests over the course of the weekend was quite a treat.

The wedding day went off without a hitch and even seemed to pass quickly regardless of the 7:30pm start time. Like I said earlier, 90 degrees at 5:30pm in July for outdoor pictures was bearable. I was just happy to be home. The reception was a party I will not soon forget. It was so much fun to catch up with our friends and family who we have been away from for 4 months. The band was a blast and it can be confirmed by my mother who really got to “shake her tail feathers” with the mother of the Groom, on stage in front of all the guests. Sorry mom, but the word was going to get out anyways! Pictures to come! Waking up on Sunday morning was not nearly as pleasant as waking up on any other day of the week!

And here we are. It is currently Monday evening (already Tuesday where we are heading) and Deaner and I are making the long journey home. We were even able to meet up with Deaner’s dad in the Crown Room because he had a flight to NYC shortly after we left. It was nice to get another short visit in after our dinner together last night. We got to eat at Outback for dinner one last time and enjoyed our last Mexican food for awhile at lunch today. I know I have so many things on the horizon to look forward to but I can’t help feeling sad leaving behind everyone and everything that I love in Atlanta. Even Deaner said earlier that despite his hatred of smog, traffic and crowds, he feels like Atlanta is where we will eventually call home again. I really hope so.

Steph will be waiting for us when we land in Frankfurt in about 5 ½ hours. We are eternally grateful not to have to take the train after traveling for nearly 12 hours. At least we have a few friends in Germany that look out for us! Back to the land of no ice, no refills, $6 diet cokes, people who chain smoke, and where you can’t talk on your cell phone when you drive. I suppose I should be fair and say that it is also back to good beer, great wine, stunning architecture and our exciting new life together! I’ll post again tomorrow, after a little nap, and I promise to post some wedding pictures. I made sure to put them on my computer before I left! Hope everyone is already having a good week!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

SO the big wedding weekend is finally upon us! I can remember (way back when to 5 months ago) being SO excited on the Thursday before all the big hoopla started. I think I had more fun at my wedding than anyone else. It was just such a great time to see family and friends and realize all the effort that everyone else put into making your big day special for you. I wasn't stressed out at all and it was so much fun just to enjoy everything and everyone. I hope that my sister will realize that everything is done and it is time to sit back and enjoy the party!! It is all for them after all!!

Today is sort of the calm before the storm I suppose. Deaner will be here in less than 4 hours!! Can you tell I am counting down the hours? One of my oldest friends is coming to scoop me up to eat pizza for lunch so we can do some gossiping and catching up. Then I will head down to the airport to fetch my husband!! The rest of our day will consist of dropping Deaner's luggage off at home, picking up his tuxedo for the wedding, and meeting his mother for dinner so he can get his fill of Margaritas and Mexican food! My sister's future in-laws are having dinner with my family tonight but since Deaner will not really be able to see his mother while he is here, we are meeting her instead. I'm sure we will make it back on the tail end of dinner to meet everyone (and to see my baby cousin Thomas of course! See super cute picture above!)

Tomorrow morning the Bridesmaid's Luncheon will be held at the Swan Coach House. How pretty is it??The only problem is that they only serve CHICKEN SALAD and y'all must know by now how I feel about chicken salad!!! :) The rehearsal dinner is being held at Park Tavern in Midtown and I think that it has one of the best views of the city skyline in all of Atlanta. Obviously this picture was taken during some sort of event and the festival like tents won't be in the park but you get the idea!The Church where they are getting married is the same one where Deaner and I got married. I love it and it is the church where we grew up and went to grade school even.The reception is going to be at my parent's country club where we also spent a gracious amount of time growing up! I am sort of irritated because I can't find a picture of the FRONT of the place. I have no idea why all the pictures are of the back of the club house. That sort of seems dumb to me! I will definitely take some pictures of my own but here is what the BACK of the club looks like if you are interested! HA!And there you have it. All the venues of the weekend! Hopefully I will be able to post pictures as we go along but y'all know how it gets and I'm expecting to stay busy! Right now I have to go because my mom is requesting that I clean the bathroom I have been using for all of 6 days, as if it is not pristine as it is!! More later!!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

I know I have been a terrible blogger the past few days. I am constantly reminded of it everytime my mom goes to my page and hollers about there being nothing new for her to read!! I just don't have a ton of time between trying to catch up with all my friends while I am here! Monday I had lunch with former co-workers, dinner with a friend at PF Changs (YUM!!!!!!!!). Tuesday I had lunch on the patio with my parents and sister. The weather oculd not be nicer in Atlanta. It didn't get hotter than 82 that day and sitting in the shade outside enjoying icy cold diet coke and Ansley Golf Club chicken fingers rocked my world! Last night for dinner I went over to my friend Laura's house and got to enjoy hanging out with her three boys before bedtime and hear stories of their naughty behaviors since I have been away. Two of her boys were ring bearers in our wedding and it was SO good to see them again. Tucker kept kissing me and it made me feel like I was really missed while I was gone. Laura and I got to enjoy good red wine and conversation and while I'll get to see her again at the wedding, I'm already sad to leave again. Visiting is bitter sweet. It is so great to see friends but the time spent together is so short that it hurts all over again to have to leave. Today has been an uneventful day. Deaner gets in tomorrow and I can't wait to see him! Let the weekend festivities begin!!!!!!!!!! I promise I will give more dirt later!! Maybe even tonight if I get bored!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

I just experienced my first disappointment of being back in the United States. I went over to Michael's this morning to buy some scrap booking supplies to haul back to Germany with me and when I was done I was ready for some lunch. I was so excited when I had the idea to run thru the drive thru at Chick-fil-a on the way home. I zipped right into the parking lot and was pumped when there was no one in the line! Sweet!! I pull right up to the intercom and decided on a chicken nugget combo. I was even debating value sizing it! Usually Chickfila is super fast and it is so easy to get in and out quickly. I was sort of confused when no one was coming over the intercom to help me! I mean, I NEEDED my chicken nuggets! After about a minute it dawned on me. There was going to be no Chickfila for me today............it is SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh! This used to happen to me all the time even when I lived here full time BUT I never actually went up to the window and waited to be helped! HA! I laughed so hard that I had to call my mom and tell her what I did. Needless to say she got a kick out of it too. I'm sure I will find the time to go back at some point this week!

I am starting to think that it might be time to head back to Germany before I spend my entire life savings here! Yesterday was my shopping day that focused on Deaner. After the unfortunate "pants incident" of two weeks ago he was in dire need of some new work slacks. I hit it big again and Deaner is going to be set for awhile! The best part was I got to eat real Mexican food with my mother-in-law before our shopping excursion! I got him 5 new pairs of pants and two new pairs of dress shoes. I also got him 2 more dress shirts (to go with the 3 I already bought him) and a new tie. I thought I would throw Deaner's new watch into the picture as well. That's right, my husband is now the proud owner of a Tag Heuer watch. This really sort of annoys me since he wouldn't even KNOW what Tag Heuer was if it weren't for my intense desire to own the Maria Sharapova Aquaracer with diamond bezel!! I'm still trying to figure out how HE has ended up with a Tag before me! I suppose we can thank Marriott rewards for that! 220,000 points later, Deaner has a nice watch to show for living in hotels for 5 years!

I didn't buy much for myself yesterday except for my one big purchase that I desperately needed.I have been needing a new black fleece for my winter jacket for awhile but it is hard to take the plunge when you see the price tag on these things. I was actually debating buying a new shell too since mine is almost 10 years old however Dick's Sporting Goods store does not carry the shells in the summer. That solved that problem and now I'll just have to stew about buying one on our next trip to the States. It should give me enough time to figure out what I want!

Today is a pretty lazy day. I am going to have dinner with some family tonight that is in town for the wedding. And I get to see Baby Thomas!! I'm going over early to play with him before I have to share him with others! I'll also get to see my grandfather, Captain Jack! Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Friday, July 17, 2009

I have found a past time that could potentially be very harmful to my wallet! This morning I tagged along with my mom and her friend as they hit up all the advertised estate sales around our area of Atlanta. This is what they do every single Friday, year round. On Wednesday and Thursdays they start scouting out the sales that are advertised in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution and Friday mornings they hit the ground running! It was a blast! The first sale we went to was the best one and it is probably good that I didn't find anything else to buy at all the following sales! I spent my budget at the first place! I had my eyes open for sterling and waterford crystal. As you can see from the above picture, I hit the jackpot at the first sale. I registered for this same decanter for our wedding and (not surprisingly!) did not get it. You can bet your butt that I jumped all over it since it was $75 and appears to be brand new. I just looked it up online and it's retail price is $295! I also got 8 liqueur glasses because Deaner and I have been talking about buying after dinner drink glasses. This set was marked as "Set of 6" for $75. Funny since there were actually 8 of them!! Y'all, I just looked them up online and they retail for $75 EACH and I got 8 of them for $75!! I am so excited! Now I just have to decide if I think I can get them back to Germany in one piece! They might have to stay at my parent's house for safe keeping with the rest of my sterling, crystal, and china but what a steal of a deal!! $900 worth of crystal for $150!! It is probably a good thing that I don't live here anymore because I am in to this estate sale business!

After a hard morning of shopping my mom and I met up with my aunt and Baby Thomas for lunch. Baby T was super cute today and only thew up on me once! I also picked up a gift for my sister at the mall, a few things I needed for the wedding, and the beer and wine for the bachelorette shower tonight. It should be a good time but I think I need a little nap before I head out for the evening. While I think I am pretty adjusted to the time change I am still getting tired pretty early in the evening. I did manage to sleep until 7:45am this morning. I'm sure tomorrow I won't have an issue sleeping in!

Hope everyone had a good week. Thank god it is Friday right? Happy weekend!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Did I mention that I was excited about going shopping while I was in Atlanta?? It was an understatement. I woke up this morning at 5:30am in anticipation!! Well, it was the anticipation as well as the fact that sleeping until 5:30am was like sleeping until 11:30am on my body's time! I was ready to go hours before our 9:00am departure time! The outlets are about 45 minutes away from my parent's house and we were there by 10 this morning. The stores we hit up all morning included Brooks Brothers, Ann Taylor, JCrew, Polo, Coach, Pottery Barn. Restoration Hardware, Williams-Sonoma, and Gap. Good god I got a lot of stuff! I got some really good deals and literally everything I got I needed. You can see in the picture above that I laid out all my new purchases on my bed as soon as I got home. I love all my stuff and I am so excited about it. Furthermore, I would just like to state for the record that I bought all my normal sizes, everything fit, and I do NOT, in any way, look pregnant!! I can guarantee it!! I still have to get some new shoes ect but at least I found a dress to wear to my sister's bridesmaid's luncheon. It is the only thing that I took an up close picture of so y'all can see. I love the color!! It is from Ann Taylor.It was a very fun day with my mom and sister. I had a great time shopping with them. My sister even found her nightstand at Pottery Barn for MUCH less than normal AND she was able to buy 10 of her fine china salad plates for much less than where she is registered! It was a good shopping day for all!! After shopping we swung by 5 Guys for burgers before heading back to Atlanta. Man, I totally forgot how awesome that place is!! Almost as good as my incredible steak at Outback last night! Does anyone else think that they put crack in those steaks?? I can't get enough of them! I think it is more likely that the crack might also be known as BUTTER. Yum.

After getting back home my mom and I headed to the alterations place to drop off my bridesmaid dress and then go to the grocery store. Tonight my mom is making dinner and I can't wait! Also, guess who is here?? My baby cousin Thomas!! I can't believe how big he has gotten! He is currently taking a nap but as soon as he gets up I will get my picture taken with him to post! He is to die for cute, even if he did spit up on me TWICE!

My mom and I settled in to watch Days of Our Lives while Thomas napped but unfortunately my mom has not been exaggerating when she says that she is 3 weeks behind on this show!! There is no way that she is ever going to catch up at this rate!

I have no HUGE plans for tomorrow during the day. I have to get my sister a gift for her lingerie party tomorrow night. We are having her bachelorette party tomorrow night and I am very excited about the restaurant where we are eating (does anyone see a common theme of "eating" here?? I better be careful or else I might look pregnant)!! It should be a lot of fun. I'll definitely post beforehand though. I'm off to wait for Baby Thomas to wake up from his nap!! I really really miss my husband but this busy day went by quickly. Only 6 days until he gets here!!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

I’m coming at y’all straight from the friendly skies. I know I won’t be able to post this until I get to my parent’s house and actually have an internet connection but I figure that if this passes half an hour of this long ass flight, it will be worth it. I’m also giving My Best Friend, Jr. some action. Deaner has been complaining that he is the one that has to use this small computer lately. Did he really think it would be any other way? !

When we first decided to move to Wiesbaden, Deaner told me that the Frankfurt airport was about 20 minutes away from us. There was no way I believed that and I went around telling people that it was at least 45 minutes away. I hate to admit when I’m wrong, but I will. I think we got to the airport in about 18 minutes this morning. HA!

I was so sad to leave Deaner this morning. I know that it is only a week apart but that still seems like a long time to me. I don’t know how military wives and families do it. My sister-in-law is the wife of a Marine Officer and is facing her husband’s THIRD deployment in 2 years. I think that just sucks. Thank a serviceman next time you see one in an airport. It is because of them that we get to enjoy the freedoms that we have. There are two young soldiers on my flight right now returning from Afghanistan and it has been touching to see how many civilians have approached them and thanked them for serving. You can tell how much they appreciate it.

Anyways, before I move forward with the discrepancies between the two airlines in the above title I would like to give you a snippet of the conversation between myself and the woman sitting next to me right now. Yes, my computer screen is angled so she can’t read it. I’d be worried about the guy next to me being able to see it but he has been conked out since we took off. With his mouth WIDE open. Anyways, I’ll preface this conversation by saying that I always choose the window seat. I like to lean my head against the wall and I don’t like to move for other people. As I approached seat 24G I notice that this lady is sitting in my seat. Great. Kindly I tell her that it is my seat but that I would be happy to sit in the aisle (since she clearly had all her stuff arranged in her seat pouch). Ugh. As soon as I sat down, before I even got to call Deaner to say good bye, here is how the conversation went……

Lady: “Where are you from”?Me: “Atlanta, but I live here, just going home for a visit”.Lady: “Well, I have been on vacation for 4 weeks”.Me: “that is nice”. (I’m clearly holding my cell phone waiting to make a call)Lady: “Yeah, my husband had an affair so I took off. I’ve been in Abu Dhabi, Doha, and Dubai. He doesn’t know where I am. Oh yeah, and I stole $10,000 from him the past 4 weeks”. Me: SpeechlessLady: “I caught him with some Filipino. He was in a hotel in Dubai and he was stupid enough to use his bank card. I called that hotel up and made the front desk go straight up to his room and hand the phone to him and he was BUSTED”. Me: “I have to call my husband now to say good-bye” (sorry, the husband reference might have been insensitive)

Pause conversation . Call Deaner. Tell him that I am about to send him an e-mail to tell him what is going on next to me. We say good-bye.

Lady: “I have been married for 12 years. How long have you been married”?Me: “4 months”Lady: “And now you are having a baby”? Me: Queue fire explosions in my eyes. “WHAT”????Lady: “You are pregnant right”?Me: “No, most definitely not, thank you” (Now I have a bit of attitude and I am not interested in speaking with this moron anymore)

Pause. Full of rage.Lady: “I’m probably going to leave my husband eventually but not before I get the rest of the money and clean out the 401k. He doesn’t even expect it”Me: No responseLady: “And I told him that if he ever wants to be intimate again he has to get an HIV test. That is not how I roll. I’m only going home to check on my house and then I am leaving again for another trip like this. I’m gonna spend more of his money”. Me: typing on iphone to DeanerLady: “What is the first thing you are going to eat when you get home”?Me: “I was going to eat Outback but maybe I shouldn’t, since you thought I was pregnant and all”.Lady: “Yeah! I really did!”Me: Put on headphones and never spoke again. I don’t plan on it either.

What is wrong with people? Now I have spent the past 4 hours thinking about how I must look really fat. But I certainly know that I don’t look PREGNANT for christ sake! I wear a size 8 or 10 and if that is how pregnant people look, fine with me.

Moving on. Even though I know I won’t. So far this whole flying experience has been lovely. I fly a lot and I am not a particularly nervous flyer. I just don’t typically fly overseas alone for 10 hours with freaks sitting next to me! After about 4 or 5 flights with the local cheap-o airline, Ryan Air, I have come to fully appreciate the luxury of Delta Airlines. First off, it is located at a real live International Airport and not some cargo hanger called Frankfurt-Hahn, when in fact, it is really located 1 hour and 20 minutes from the city of Frankfurt. I actually got to grab breakfast at a Burger King. Not that I am sick to freaking death of Burger King (since we actually have them on the base) but Frankfurt-Hahn has pretty much ZERO options. Secondly, I was able to sit in my seat at the gate until my zone was called to board. This was nothing short of incredible.

Let me explain something about Ryan Air. There are no assigned seats. This means that all seating is first come first serve. This wouldn’t be so bad except that people start lining up about 45 minutes before the idiots that run the place even think about opening the gate to board. I’m always lured into a false sense of relaxation because everyone at the gate sits around leisurely ACTING like they aren’t ready to bolt into the line as soon as the first person gets in the line. It never fails that about 45 minutes before the flight someone walks in and straight up to start the front of the line. Then typically all hell breaks loose. There is a mad dash to get in line. It doesn’t even matter if you are in the front of the line because people will RUN past you to get to the plane first. It makes me a NERVOUS wreck. I was delighted to board this flight knowing that my seat was going to be empty when I arrived at it. Except for the freak was sitting in it. Anyways!

My seat is spacious. It has my own personal TV screen with movies and music and games! I have already watched I Love You, Man with Paul Rudd (who I love). I’m pretty sure my next selection will be 17 Again with Zac Efron. The only slightly irritating part about the TV screen is that it just told me that I only had 6 hours and 29 minutes left on this plane. When I looked again it said 7 hours. That is sort of a bummer. Also, on Delta Airlines, not only are seats assigned, fellow passenger actually STAY IN THEM! Ryan Air turns off the seat belt sign when the plane is practically still vertical and then every person under the age of 30 gets out of their seat and mingles in the ONE aisle. Or over the back of your seat. I have some major issues with them if you can’t tell. Our second to last flight with Ryan Air didn’t take off from Rome until almost 11pm. They left the lights on the whole time. Awful. Of course there were no luxurious eye masks to use!

You know, I guess that is the difference between a $35 ticket and one that cost nearly $900! At any rate, I certainly know how hellish cheap air travel can be, and I am loving Delta right now. Let’s just pray that my bag makes it with me! I’ll let y’all know when I make it!

I am going to go ahead and write this post and hopefully I can figure out how to schedule it to post if I am not able to write a post tomorrow. Deaner and I are planning on leaving the hotel a little before 7:00am to take me to Frankfurt International Airport. I am really torn about going home. On one hand, I CANNOT wait to get there and to see all my friends and family. I can't wait to sleep in a comfy bed, in an air conditioned room, in silence (because the windows won't have to be wide open!) On the other hand, I am really going to miss Deaner and I feel bad about leaving him here for a week by himself. There is no way in hell I would ever let him leave me for that long! It just didn't seem logical for BOTH of us to only be able to go home for 4 days for this wedding. The plane tickets were $900 EACH and it seemed silly for both of us to have to rush through the weekend. SO, I get to go early. I mean someone has to do our winter shopping right?

Anyways, I figure that I owe y'all the rest of the pictures of our house. Beware, these aren't as good. It is hard to take pictures that show the WHOLE room at once. The first pictures are of the master bedroom. I use the term "Master" very loosely! This room needs a lot of work and will definitely be painted immediately. I also think I will lose the scale in the corner! No need to be reminded of my weight everyday!We even have a balcony off our bedroom!Also, you aren't seeing things. The current owners of the house lived in the U.S. for a year many years back and they fell in love with CLOSETS! We are lucky enough to have not one, but TWO closets in our room! This is unheard of in Germany!Guest bedroom #1. Keep in mind all the carpet in all the rooms is being changed.Guest bedroom #2. This room is huge but semi awkward. Originally we were thinking it would be the main guest bedroom but now we are thinking it might be better as the 2nd guest bedroom or maybe eventually a baby's room. There is no really good place for a big bed. And yes, that is a swing.Guest bedroom #3.And finally the view from the 3rd guest bedroom balcony.So, as y'all can see, I have my work cut out for me. I think that the whole house needs to be painted and new carpeting put in every bedroom upstairs. I am not a fan of carpet but hardwoods is out of the question. Plus, the rest of the house in marble floors so that might look weird anyways. I have a feeling that I am going to HATE painting by the time all is said and done. But I promise not to complain as long as all our stuff arrives here and I get it SOON! I just realized that I left pictures of both upstairs bathrooms out by accidently. They just look like plain ole bathrooms! I promise!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Ok, so I am trying something new today. I sure hope that it works because I haven't participated before and I don't want to screw it up! My friend Emory at Emma's Closet & The Eison Family told me about the weekly Blog Hop that she participates in and I figured I would give it a try! Since I am not exactly sure how it works, I will probably have more to say about it once I get this posted!! The idea is that a specific topic is given once a week and all people participating post with the same theme. This week, as you can see, the title is 3 Things That You Did Not Know About Me. So here it goes......

1. When I was 8 years old I was part of a front page story in the USA Today newspaper. A reporter came to my house when I was in 2nd grade and interviewed me about my NINTENDO PLAYING SKILLS!!!!!! HA HA HA! It was awesome. I was the cover story! Don't believe me? Ask Fatboy/Chubs. I'm sure he will chime in on the comments to confirm this. I received two free Nintendo games for doing the interview (one of which was Super Mario Brothers II. before it was released) and I had to leave basketball practice early to do the interview. The most scandalous part was that they printed my Mother's age and she was TICKED. And to think she was like only 37 at the time!

2. I know that most of my close friends know this but while I appear to be adventurous, moving across the world as a newlywed and all, I almost refuse to try new things to eat. I have the WORST palate ever. Most of my friends say that I only eat things that are white. Ha! I will not TOUCH anything born or raised in water. Sick. It makes me gag to think about it. And sometimes I get really sick of people telling me what I am missing out on. I don't think I am missing out on anything since I hate it! If I order something in a restaurant that I don't like, I can't eat it. Plain and simple. I eat the same things as a 5 year old and I like it. Since I love steak so much, why would I order something else in a restaurant and risk the chance of not liking it? Thank you! (I also don't like drinking water!)

3. I am a fantastic Halloween costume maker! I love Halloween and while we don't dress up for it every year, on the years that we do, I go all out. Here are a few examples of my handiwork!This chicken costume was really great! I don't even think that it was all that expensive to make. And yes, those are rubber kitchen gloves on my feet. No shame. Here was our costume from this past year. I can't even say how great it was. However, there was a bit of an expense issue. I think I got away without telling Deaner how much those things ended up costing me but holy crap! Does anyone know how expensive fake plastic leaves are!?!?!The Jolly Green Giant and Sprout were a huge hit!

Hopefully those are three things that weren't widely known about me! :) If you didn't read my post from yesterday, the stories about Deaner were really funny. He says that he is going to start a blog of his own and write embarrassing things about me! I'll just deny them! Happy Tuesday! I'm heading to the States tomorrow! If I don't get to post, that is why!

So I wasn't going to call my husband out but in a recent turn of events I feel like I have to. Two ridiculous things in one week warrant being tattled on! First things first. Whenever I wear a pair of jeans for the first time since they have come out of the dryer, I always do squats in the them to loosen them up a bit! I know that every girl reading this knows exactly what I am talking about and I would be willing to bet that most practice this technique themselves. SO, the other day when Deaner and I were getting ready to leave for dinner in Frankfurt with some friends, I headed down to the car ahead of Deaner so I could hit up the ATM first. I was starting to get irritated because he was taking a long time and we had sort of a long drive ahead of us. I didn't notice anything different right away (probably because all Deaner's work pants are exactly the same) but the first words out of his mouth were "You aren't going to believe what I just did". Of course this caught my attention and I got this response:

"Well, I was just upstairs and my pants felt a little tight. I know you always do squats when your jeans come out of the dryer so I decided to try it. And my pants split all the way up my butt"!

WHAT???? Is this some sort of joke?? That was the funniest thing I have heard in a long time! Except for the fact that since we STILL don't have all our clothes yet, Deaner is currently on a three pant rotation! Strike that, I mean TWO now! He told me that there was no saving them and he was right. I have never seen a rip so big! I think I laughed all the way to Frankfurt while Deaner pouted about his pants ripping. The funniest part is that he really hasn't gained any weight but khakis are a lot THINNER than jeans thus a lot more likely to rip. He probably won't be doing that again! I had to add another item to my shopping list for the States!

Which leads me to my second ridiculous story of the week. And this one I truly CANNOT understand. Except this is the second time it has happened! Y'all tell me what you think. Yesterday Deaner graciously offered to help me with the laundry since I do it all the time and I am really quite sick of it. He was going down to the basement gym in the hotel to workout and said that he would put the laundry in the washer, workout, and then move it to the dryer. SA-WEET!! Well, when he came upstairs from working out he told me that the laundry room was pretty crowded and he wasn't able to put in all the clothes at once so we still had a load in the washer, waiting for a dryer.

Innocent enough, right? I told him I would run down and put the load in the dyer while he took a shower. So I head down to do just this. As I opened the door to the FRONT LOADING WASHER I thought it was very odd that I saw the CAP from our bottle of laundry detergent INSIDE the washer. Huh? You can imagine my surprise when I bent over to look inside and actually saw the ENTIRE BOTTLE inside the machine!!!! WTF?? It was a brand new bottle. Never used. I just cannot make myself understand how he accidentally got the whole bottle inside the washer! It is FRONT LOADING and not like the detergent could accidentally fall into the washer once it was going (which is supposedly what happened last time!). Before you go defending him, you put the detergent into the TOP of the machine. The bottle should never go near the opening at all. I just can't believe that the washer didn't overflow with suds..........flooding the ENTIRE hotel.

He claims that he has no clue how this happened and even suggested that we had been "sabotaged". This whole situation makes me laugh except for the fact that a bottle of detergent is like 10 bucks! And now I have to go buy some more tomorrow before I head home or else he won't do laundry the whole time I am gone! After the whole incident he did say that he thinks he prefers me to do the laundry while he is at the office! HA ha!

One more day until I head home! Tomorrow we have to go to Mannheim and sign papers with our financial consultant regarding our house! Then we go to the notary at 5:00 in Wiesbaden! Move in date is set for August 15th. And I PROMISE more house pictures if I have time tomorrow! For now, I hope everyone enjoyed the stories about my comical husband.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

I know that I owe everyone the picture of the upstairs of our new house but I figured that y'all might want to see some pictures from Belgium first. Deaner and I left early on Thursday morning to head to Brussels so that he could get to a meeting at 1:00pm. Thankfully the weather held off and I got to do some exploring when we got there and Deaner had to work. There isn't a TON to do in Brussels but the architecture was certainly beautiful enough to hold our attention for the day! This first picture is of the Stock Exchange in Brussels. It is the first building that you see when you walked out of our hotel on the way to the Grand Place. Two blocks past this building you entered the Grand Place which is a great treat for sightseers. Here are just a few pictures from the Grand Place.For those of you who have been to Brussels I am sure that you have seen the famous Mannequin Pis. This statue of a little boy peeing makes headlines in all major travel books as a "must see" in Brussels. All I have to say is "OH PLEASE"! I read reviews on Trip Advisor prior to seeing the Mannequin Pis so at least I wasn't sorely disappointed! This statue is really little but I still enjoyed seeing it. It is just a little odd. They market this statue in Brussels the same way that Parisians market the Eiffel Tower! And it just isn't that impressive! Cute and worth seeing but certainly not awe inspiring! :)We decided that we would have dinner at a restaurant right on the Grand Place so that we could enjoy the views. Our food was surprisingly good (although overpriced!) but it was the atmosphere that was excellent!We even enjoyed a few of these.........Yum!! All and all it was a nice little trip for one night. I think that Deaner will be working here often and I especially enjoyed staying here!The air conditioning, black out drapes, and down comforters put the American Arms Hotel to SHAME! I'll go back to Brussels ANY time! After we got back on Friday afternoon we headed over to Jon and Steph's apartment for dinner, drinks and HAIR CUTS! I can't tell you how badly Deaner needed a hair cut! Thankfully I am all highlighted now and he is all trimmed up! We can officially go back to Atlanta looking good! I am super excited about heading home on Wednesday! I am not super excited about the 10 hour 10 minute flight that I am facing sitting next to someone that is NOT Deaner! Boo!! Anyways, I have tons to do in the next few days to get ready to leave. Including, that's right, laundry. I'm going to try and get Deaner to do it today! I will put the rest of the house pictures up tomorrow so stay tuned!!